When House Republicans are sworn in Jan. 5, a third of their new majority will be freshmen lawmakers, elected in a wave of voter discontent with the Democrats who had been in charge.
The 80-plus freshmen, many of them backed by the Tea Party, will be looking for more attention and power than congressional leaders have ever awarded any previous class of freshmen.
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And they’ll probably get it.
“They will be represented more so than any other freshman class I have seen at the leadership table,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who is running against Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Tea Party favorite from Minnesota, to be the next GOP conference chairman.
“They need to be treated differently than an ordinary freshman class,” Hensarling said. “They do deserve a significant place at the leadership table. There is no doubt about that.”
Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the likely House speaker, announced this week he is creating a leadership spot specifically for a member of the freshman class, an unprecedented move that signals the GOP is taking very seriously the message voters delivered Nov. 2.
Younger lawmakers are expected to rise more quickly, Hensarling said. Among them is Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who is beginning only his third term but is likely to fill the No. 3 leadership slot of majority whip.
The new 22-member GOP Transition Team includes four freshmen, a sizable number certain to give newcomers additional clout in reorganizing the House under GOP control.
“You bet we’re listening to them,” transition team leader Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Tuesday.
It remains to be seen how seriously veteran lawmakers will take the priorities of the House’s newest members, and just how hard the freshmen will find it to fulfill the demands of the people who elected them.
The last class to face such a challenge was the freshman class of 1995, the year the Republican Revolution swept the House under Speaker Newt Gingrich, who found that turning bold campaign promises into legislation was more difficult than they imagined.
“It took us a lot longer to realize that simply because we were elected based on our ideas to cut back the size of government and do away with unnecessary offices, that it also meant the America people would necessarily go along with it,’ said former Rep. Bob Barr, a member of the 1995 freshman class. “That may get you elected, but when push comes to shove, the American electorate is much more incremental than they might be on Election Day. That is going to be a very difficult challenge for Boehner, as it was for Gingrich.”
Michael Franc, vice president of government relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said House Republicans can demonstrate that they’re heeding the lessons of Election Day by giving freshmen lawmakers key committee assignments that would allow them to implement the kind of cuts and reforms the public appeared to be demanding by ousting so many Democratic incumbents.
“Their leadership must, at a minimum, find a few ways to send a clear signal that this isn’t your ordinary freshman class,” Franc said. “This is an historic group and we have to deal with them accordingly.”
